Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 1

Detroit. What a wonderful place. Not really, but I was happily impressed with it in HR. I spent yesterday just wandering through the streets of Human Revolution’s Detroit. I disabled the objective arrow from the onset of the game, giving me the freedom to discover things on my own. I much prefer it to being told what to do. This gives me time to generally muck about.

The place feels pretty alive. There’s a good number of folks just hanging out on the streets chatting about the recent augmentation protests. It’s great to just stroll by and eavesdrop on some conversations. Some folks seem pretty friendly, others are just judging Jensen due to the octagon stamped on his forehead. In a way, it seems like to much augmentation talk, but if you’re the 2027 equivalent of Gunther Herman, that’s probably what people tend to fixate on when they see you.

I happened upon a transient in front of a door that had a hackable password. What was in there? Nothing that I could tell. Bizarrely enough, I’m quite satisfied that this is the case. Sometimes you just need stuff to explore and a few duds make the effort more worthwhile. I’ve got a nagging suspicion that it’ll come in handy later, though.

I encountered one of my worries. A big concern that I had (and that I really disliked about Invisible War) was that all of the decisions would be laid out for us. Go left or right. Be lethal or non-lethal. Choose the Omar or the other crappy side Good news: that doesn’t seem to be the case.

So, as part of the mission objectives, Mr. Sarif is asking Jensen to check out a LIMB clinic. With no arrow to guide me, I wander in on my own and the very nice lady behind the desk informs me that there’s a generous donation made in my name to the tune of 5000 credits to let me buy a Praxis kit, specially designed to let me access augs early. The augmentations were installed on Jensen during his life-saving surgery, but have not been enabled for fear that it’ll overload his body. These Praxis kits are software overrides that’ll power up the augs before their automatic activation kicks in.

As I took the cash, I left the place with no such Praxis device in hand. I spent a little cash on a supplement to charge my batteries, but nothing else. What can I say? I’m a hoarder. Save that cash for when I need it. With my horrible stealth skills, that’ll be pretty damn soon.

And then it comes over the info link: “Jensen, why didn’t you get a Praxis kit?” barks an agitated David Sarif. Just like that, the micro-choices I’m making on a small scale are influencing how others perceive me. There was never a “click here to keep Mr. Sarif happy” or “Make Mr. Sarif mad” option. Instead, it’s just myself, making the choices I’d make, letting the world react around me. That’s Deus Ex.